Day1
We boarded the Kuwait Airways flight from Cochin airport,and from Kuwait we flew to Amman. After the formalities, which took quite some time, we boarded the bus waiting for us , went straight to the restaurant to have a sumptuous meal, after which we started our real pilgrimage.
(At the Restaurant..., water is expensive, $1 for a bottle of water. But Sprite or coke is free. Strange!!)
Straight to Madaba. We visited Madaba, in Jordan, known as the city of Mosaics, because of its superb, historically significant Byzantine era mosaics.There, we first visited the Greek Orthodox St.George's Church,famous for the mosaic map on its floor.Unearthed in 1864, the mosaic was once a clear map with 157 captions (in Greek) of all major Biblical sites from Lebanon to Egypt. The mosaic was constructed AD 560 & once contained more than 2 million pieces, only 1/3 of the whole now survives.
After that we went to Mount Nebo, the place from where God showed Moses the Promised Land, Cana, the land of milk and honey. We really could get a panoramic view of Cana from atop the Mount Nebo.As you know, Moses was punished by God for his little moment of pride, so he could not enter the Promised Land. It was Joshua who finally took the Israelites to Cana.The Bible says that Moses was not allowed to enter the Promised Land, but could only glimpse it from Mount Nebo, because he struck the rock with his rod instead of speaking to the rock to bring forth water, as God had commanded (Numbers 20:12-24). .It is believed that Moses was buried somewhere near Mount Nebo, or was taken up to Heaven from there.......???No one till date knows of the real site where he was buried.
Another interesting sight there is the serpentine cross sculpture, symbolic of the bronze serpent created by Moses in the wilderness ( Numbers 21 :4 - 9 ) and the cross upon which Jesus was crucified (John 3:14). ) . And this symbolic bronze serpent on the pole also resembles the medical symbol - the rod of Aesculapius, the ancient mythical god of medicine.The serpentine cross sculpture (the Brazen Serpent Monument) atop Mount Nebo was created by Italian artist Giovanni Fantoni
In fact I was so relieved to see the resemblance. Now we can think of Christ on the Cross when we see the medical symbol!!Those who look on Him on the Cross will be healed.
We also visited a sort of Mosaic factory, where men and women sat at tables making mosaics with their hands.( How can it be called a "factory", I wonder!) It takes about three to four months to complete a a small piece of mosaic, they told us. Some of the women were even handicapped. I admire their patience!
I managed to pick up a few tiny stones ( both dark gray and white) from that Holy Ground.
After the mind boggling visual feast, our bus took us to the hotel for the overnight stay.
There was a Jordanian shop at the lobby of the hotel. The friendly Muslim shop keeper made us buy a few souvenirs.
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